ON OUR INTERESTS IN IRAQ

REAL IRAQI POLITICS

This passage from Thomas Friedman's latest op-ed on Iraq, McCain, and Obama resonated with me, in the wake of the clever Der Spiegel interview  by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, timed around Obama's visit to Iraq:

"“Americans are looking forward to the post-Iraq phase of U.S. politics, and Iraqis are now looking forward to the post-American phase of Iraqi politics,” said Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy expert at Johns Hopkins University. That is the reality of post-surge Iraq and post-subprime America — and any leader in either country who ignores that reality does so at his or her peril.

Forget about our narrative on this war — how we “liberated Iraq.” Think about the Iraqi narrative. No one likes to be liberated or occupied by someone else. It is humiliating. France still hasn’t gotten over the fact that it had to be liberated by the Allies. What is important is how, with the help of the surge, Iraqis have finally started to liberate themselves — the Sunnis from their extremists and the Shiites from their extremists."

The last bit about France not liking being liberated by the Allies reminded me of how DeGaulle swooped in to the front of the line as the Allies finally liberated Paris from the Nazis.  This Wikipedia entry reminds us (image source):

"At the liberation of France following Operation Overlord, he quickly established the authority of the Free French Forces in France, avoiding an Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories.
He flew into France from the French colony of Algeria a few days before the liberation of Paris, and drove near the front of the liberating forces into the city alongside Allied officials. De Gaulle made a famous speech emphasizing the role of France's people in her liberation.  After his return to Paris, he moved back into his office at the War Ministry, thus proclaiming continuity of the Third Republic and denying the legitimacy of the Vichy regime."

The Iraqis are going through their own set of internal politics trying to figure out their political dynamics post the American presence in Iraq.  The recent Obama/McCain romp through the region is but a convenient prop to be cannily used by Iraqi politicians for their own domestic advantage.  DeGaulle is famous for his pithy observation once that:

"France has no friends, only interests."

We need to remember Iraq, along with Prime Minister Maliki's key Shia supporting partner Iran, has no friends as well...only interests.  And they've been focused on these interests for a long time, even as the U.S. public's interest in all things Iraq wanes going into the election.

We too need to be coldly focused on our long-term interests in the region, and not let the current, short-term Presidential campaign rhetoric on either side drive those interests.

Comments

[Alex Tolley]

"We too need to be coldly focused on our long-term interests in the region, and not let the current, short-term Presidential campaign rhetoric on either side drive those interests."

What do you think those interests are?